Nov. 17, 2025
By Alessandra Ricra
Staff Writer
This piece is part of a four-part in-depth reporting project about college.
Thanks to the Student Services Department’s collaboration with the educational platform Naviance, students have more opportunities than ever to meet college representatives without leaving the high school’s campus.
School counselor Mrs. Stacy said Naviance has facilitated visits from roughly 45 college and university representatives this year, which is up from about 20 visits last school year.
“It’s [the first full] year we’re using Naviance, so colleges were able to sign up for us instead of us reaching out to them,” Stacy said.
The lunchtime sessions, which students register for on Naviance, are generally held in the Student Services office and occasionally in the auditorium.
Stacy said most attendees have been juniors and seniors, but these events are open to students from all grades.
“It’s never too early to start thinking about what you’d like to do,” Stacy said. “It’s never too early to think about your future.”
After the representative presents information about their school, students can ask questions and get the representative’s contact information to build connections. These representatives are often involved in the admissions process, so it is useful to make a good first impression.
“Just as much as you are applying to a school, you should also be interviewing the school,” Stacy said. “Tuition, scholarships, any question you can think of, you should ask them.”
After touring Montclair State University’s campus over the summer, senior Layla Santos attended its session on Sept. 22. She said Montclair State is her top choice school.
“I found out some things [on the campus tour], but I wanted to find out more,” Santos said. “[I wanted] to see if… I should commute there, if I should live there or if I could find other majors to study.”
Santos, who intends to pursue a degree in music education to become a choir teacher, said she appreciated the information shared by Montclair State’s admissions counselor, Anisha Saini.
“She mentioned the Merit Program and the Honors Program, and I think that’ll be very helpful. Now that I’m aware of it, I’ll know what it is and know if I should do it or not,” Santos said.
On Sept. 16, junior Aiden Nguyen attended a session led by Assistant Director of Recruitment Kia Anderson and Admissions Coordinator Lindsey Luper from Rutgers University–New Brunswick.
“It’s never too early to think about your future.”
Nguyen, who is undecided about his course of study, said the college representative emphasized the university’s funding, highlighting the resources and opportunities that set it apart from other schools.
“[Luper] discussed how in certain areas, [Rutgers is] funded more than a lot of colleges combined in New Jersey,” Nguyen said. “It was good to see how much funding was going into the school.”
Nguyen said Rutgers is one of his top-choice schools. He said the information sessions provided a comprehensive overview of the university.
“There’s definitely more information. It’s not as scarce as college fairs…. The fact that you could sit down for a whole lunch period and actually hear what a representative of Rutgers has to say… is very good,” Nguyen said.
He said that because of his positive experiences at the lunchtime event, he would consider attending more in the future.
“It’s important to prioritize [education] in your future,” Nguyen said. “To get involved and learn new things, there’s always a benefit to that.”
